Maybe it’s your favorite psychotherapist. Or your brother with PTSD. Or your Psych 101 instructor.

Blogger Chato Stewart has plenty. This week’s video honors the second batch of “Mental Health Heroes” that he selected and caricatured during the month of May. Did your favorite mental health hero make this week’s video?

The caricatures are a lot of fun to look at and to compare with each Heroes’ original photograph. Kudos to Chato for this unique and creative way of honoring those who are involved in mental health advocacy!

You can watch the video below. If you could add just one person as a mental health hero to Chato’s list, who would it be?

When I was in college, I worked a few days per week as a campus computer lab monitor. (In other words, I got paid a few bucks to sit in a room with 30 computers and make sure that the printer didn’t jam up.)

I usually worked the closing (read: midnight) shift, and thanks to an incredibly competent cohort of classmates, I never had much work to do. If the printer jammed, the student who’d jammed the machine would usually walk right over, pull out the offending accordion-shaped piece of computer paper, and print their work again.

Call this job a study hall for the college set.

And study I did.

It was the perfect time to read an assigned chapter or two for my Media Law class or memorize logical fallacies for Intro to Critical Thinking. I’d study, close the labs at midnight, walk home to my cinderblock dorm room, and then go to bed.

I thought it was perfect because, frankly, I was getting paid minimum wage to study — something I had to do anyway!

But, according to new research, it was also perfect for another reason: I went to sleep shortly after studying. Why is that a good thing? Watch this week’s video podcast to find out why getting some Zzzz’s right after studying might help you brain to consolidate (and remember) the new information:

• News: Anxiety Linked to Heightened Sense of Smell
• News: Does Brain Remember Response to Antidepressants?
• News: Learning Works Best When You Rest
• News: In Older Adults, Mental Games May Protect Against Dementia
• Facebook: Psych Central Facebook Fan Page

I was a teenager. Fourteen? Fifteen, maybe? I was young.

My dad spent an hour one afternoon playing with his new BB gun. I found him in our backyard on a warm summer day taking shots at an empty cardboard shipping box. He was aiming at the “F” in “FRAGILE”.

I stood on our back deck and listened to the obligatory stories about how he and the neighborhood kids used to shoot birds and squirrels with BB guns when he was a teenager.

A teenager? Hmm. I was a teenager. I’d never shot a gun before.

I asked if I could try shooting it. If he used to play with a BB gun at his age, why couldn’t I?

Somewhat reluctantly, he let me try it.

“Aim for the G,” he said, “because it’s right in the middle. And be careful.”

Despite my best aim, my first shot went straight into the dirt. My second shot hit the top edge of the box and my third hit the wall of the garage. (I don’t remember my dad being too happy about that last one.)

I haven’t touched a gun since — BB or otherwise. I’d rather stick with pasttimes that I’m good at.

But for any reader out there who does use a gun — especially if you carry it with you on a regular basis — today’s final news story may interest you. According to new research, holding a gun may influence how you see others — in a very specific and potentially dangerous way.

Watch this week’s video to find out more:

News: Math Anxiety Has Neurological Basis

News: ADHD Diagnoses Up 66 Percent Since 2000

News: Armed and Dangerous: Those with Guns Think Others are Armed Too

Blog: Suicide Prevention on Facebook: Good Luck with That

Facebook: Psychcentral Facebook Fan Page

Imagine a person who is a liar and a cheater. Perhaps you play a board game with them and they lie about their score. Then, maybe they steal a few beers from your fridge and claim to have only taken a single one.

Are you getting a mental image? Who is this person? What do they look like? What are they wearing?

Let’s go on. This same person also cuts off people in traffic. And we’re not just talking about cutting off other drivers — we’re talking about pedestrians, too! This person doesn’t yield for anyone who is waiting to use the crosswalk.

Who IS this lying, cheating, pedestrian-ignoring person? Seriously — what kind of person did you picture in your mind? Did you concoct any backstory for this person? What is their family like? What is their job like? Do they make a lot of money? Do they make very little money?

Re-read those last two questions and make a prediction: would the liar be rich or would the liar be poor?

In this week’s video podcast, we’ll find out which socioeconomic class is actually more likely to lie, cheat, and cut people off in traffic — and we’ll explain why! Check out the video below and be sure to comment if your prediction was right on target.

You can check out the below links for additional details on this week’s stories:

• News: Upper Class More Likely to Be Scofflaws
• News: Stress Changes How People Make Decisions
• News: Lack of Sleep, Stress Leads to Inflammation in Older Adults
• Blog: Increase Your Happiness with Daily Challenge
• Facebook: Psych Central Fan Page

This week’s podcast on psychology and mental health news covers the following topics:

• Obesity linked to structural changes in the brain?
• Meditation helps depression in breast cancer patients
• UK’s prescription jump in antidepressants
• Daytime naps for toddlers very important for mood later in life
• Teenage children of lesbian moms have a quality of life similar to heterosexual parents

We hope you enjoy this podcast. Please, let us know in the comments what you liked or didn’t like about it! Thank you.